Senior Field Studies Research Paper

Danielle Rhodes
Palz
English Composition 121
January 29, 2014
Field Studies Senior Field Studies showed me what it is like to live deep and suck the marrow out of life. I learned how to look at the world from a different angle and that life is not only black and white. Senior Field Studies (SFS) is a program that high school students have the opportunity of taking their senior year, and it gets them out of the classroom and into the world. Senior Field Studies is taught by two teachers Mark Leachman and Steve Porentas. These men have changed many lives. Mark started the program almost twenty-five years ago and it has been thriving ever since. SFS strives to show students the importance of learning through experience. From backpacking
through Arizona’s cactus-filled desert to rafting ninety miles down the Green River in Utah, Senior Field Studies has greatly influenced my life. It was February of last year when my life was most significantly changed.
I had a fourth-five pound pack on my back and my muddy hiking boots strapped to my feet. The sun scorching. Cacti surrounded my feet and towered like skyscrapers all around me. The simply beauty of my surroundings moved me in a way that is hard to explain, I was changed. When I looked around at the cacti covered hills I saw a new form of beauty. The familiarity of Douglas Firs or the smell of the Ponderosa Pine left me back in Colorado. Arizona’s desert showed me how life is lived from the very basic essentials. Cacti live off very little precipitation and a large amount of sun. Arizona’s desert was pulling me in. The first day we hiked a total of seven excruciating miles. The sun was beating down on my neck as beads of sweat were rolling off my brow. Our first task was to climb what is referred to as “bitch hill” and its name holds a lot of truth. After the first day I had felt so accomplished. I then felt the urge to walk with naked feet on the earth just to feel grounded. There was a connection I made with the desert that day that pushed me deeper into nature. This was the first time I would be on a long trip, two weeks to be exact, and I knew that it was going to influence the way I live the rest of my life. I would grow a deeper appreciation for
nature. After two weeks in Arizona’s Sonoran desert, there was a greater appreciation for life itself. I was so drawn to this feeling and all I wanted to do was give someone else the opportunity to learn all the things I had learned. I felt like I was actually living life and stepping outside the walls of conformity. Students go to school day after day, listen to the same teacher lecture. They do the same busy work everyday; it becomes habit. SFS tempted my mind with the possibility of being my own person and making decisions for myself. Society today makes it hard for young adults to see life beyond going to school, getting married, and having babies. But I learned more about life on that two weeks trip than I did in my twelve years of schooling. The next adventure SFS took me on was a river rafting trip ninety miles down the beautiful Green River. We began in Desolation Canyon, the name holds very true to the surrounding landscape, and ended in Green River, Utah. Desolation canyon is simple, calming, but so intriguing. Rock faces towered above me on each side of river. I felt incased in the river’s flow. The rocks wore a grey coat but slices of the stones would be red or even a deep blue. Some of the rock structures would resemble a woman’s face or a chicken head. I was amazed by nature’s creations. As we were floating down the river a whole new concept came over me. I discovered I needed to be going with the flow and that I can not force anything to happen. I can not make someone love me and I sure cannot control the actions of other humans. It is difficult to step back and let things happen but that can allow the best outcome. This idea sank deep into my skin and changed my perspective on things that happen in life. I learned how to let go of the past and look toward my future. I found most of my happiness when I was living in the moment. The river would be calmly pushing us along and a Blue Heron would fly by and I would be lost in that moment until someone or something pulled me out. As we departed from Desolation Canyon we floated into Grey’s Canyon where the more intense rapid would roar.
The rush of diving into a rapid on a little raft made me feel alive. Looking into a hole that seemed over six feet deep would send my stomach into a whirl. The anxiety and excitement would penetrate my body, leaving me frozen. I would hear the chants of my raft leader “Paddle, paddle, paddle!” and sink back into reality. The rapids are more difficult to navigate rather than calm, lake-water, river. I felt as if the rapids were similar to obstacles that life will throw out there. Life will be going along smoothly then boom: a rapid. The way we navigate the rapids will determine the outcome, the raft will either make it without any hesitation or the raft will flip and soak all of our
belongings. After graduation the knowledge from SFS was deeply imprinted in my mind and I did not want the wisdom I had gained to fade. I needed it to stay strong. Every day I make an effort to place my bare feet upon our Earth. Every day I make sure I look up at the sky and give thanks to the life this majestic earth has blessed me with. I have been influenced to respect the place I call home. I have been given the privilege of learning about life through experience. That has changed my life the most, the idea of learning through experience. It is almost programmed into out brains that we must go to school to learn and while that may be partially true, the most significant learning comes through experience. After I had gone through field studies I could truly comprehend what Henry David Thoreau meant when he wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”. He did not want to live a mediocre life nor do I. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to learn that about myself. I will not settle for an ordinary life, especially after I got a glimpse of how awesome life is through Senior Field Studies.